


Close Your Eyes (the Glory Fades)

by Brachylagus_fandom



Category: Original Work
Genre: Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Politics, ToT: Chocolate Box
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-23 21:22:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8343322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brachylagus_fandom/pseuds/Brachylagus_fandom
Summary: Highland and Lowland are renegotiating their "peace" treaty, and the Green and Black Knights have no clue why this is so tense. The White Wolves know the source of conflict very well and are more than happy to go to war over it.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Irusu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irusu/gifts).



> The title is from "Ready Aim Fire" by Imagine Dragons.

To the people of Lowland, Highland's White Wolves are legend. No one ever sees them coming; they seem to disappear and reappear at will. Many claim that their wolf masks hide monstrous faces, that they have sold their souls for battle prowess.

_ Dear Lord, _ Salamon thinks, tallying the assorted variations on "barbarian" throughout the supposedly diplomatic letter,  _ Lowlanders are idiots.  _ Just as he is about to go searching for him, King Brian steps into his office. "We have received a letter from the Lowlanders, my liege," Salamon says without prompting. "They demand that you go to their capital next week to renegotiate peace terms." King Brian laughs.

"How many times did they use 'barbarian' this time?" he asks. "How many threats are in that letter? 'Peace'? We have had no peace with the Lowlanders since my brother died. I will not go; I don't want a repeat of that incident." Salamon winces.

"We must send someone," Salamon explains, knowing that his king will not bend on sending himself to die, "or they will attack. Unless you have decided that your citizens dying en masse to destroy Lowland's army is a good idea,  _ which it is not, _ we should at least pretend to be diplomatic."

"Who are you proposing?"

"The head would need to be of your house." King Brian glares at him. "Not Cedric, of course; we're not stupid enough to send the heir apparent into something like this. Owen or Gwayne, perhaps, or maybe Adelaide. The girls would be better than the boys if we're going for underestimation. Whoever is head of the delegation, that team needs to get out as fast as possible if hell breaks loose."

" _ When _ hell breaks loose, Salamon. We're dealing with Cassius here; it's always  _ when _ with him." King Brian pauses for a moment, considering his options. "Send Adelaide; they're least likely to use her as a hostage, and she won't give them an inch. I'm assuming you've already got a potential team in mind?" Salamon nods. "Pick five and tell them that they're leaving tomorrow morning." With that, King Brian storms of and Salamon begins to narrow down his choices.

This team is going to walk into a trap and, if all goes well, walk back out of it in one piece. Underestimation will be their primary tactic, then; the less powerful King Cassius and his Color Guard think they are, the more likely they are to survive. There should be at least one double in the group, preferably as unrecognizable as possible. As for the others, there should be at least one mage with them; every bit of firepower they can send in will decrease the chances of being sent back six heads, and any White Wolf mage worth their mask packs a punch. Anyone not in armor should be as unassuming as possible, and Salamon can feel the headache from telling Adelaide that coming on already.

His mind made up, he searches out his group of five. Adelaide, as always, is on the training grounds, trouncing a knight twice her age (today, Sir Harry, who also has the distinction of being a foot taller and four stone heavier than her) in some form of combat (today, hand-to-hand). Eve is across the courtyard, working on sword drills. Nick is in the library, poring over some obscure text Salamon can't make heads or tails of. James and Jane, thankfully, are looking up reference tomes on poisons and… dressmaking, and Salamon is not even going to ask about that last one; the twins have always been rather strange people, and he has seen more of their peculiarities than he ever wanted to know already.

As they set off the next morning, Salamon grins. This mission will not be easy, even with everyone playing their part perfectly, but it will certainly be amusing.

***

If the White Wolves are faceless legend, then the Color Guard are faceless heroes. Their only purpose in life is to serve the king; anything else, such as pasts, futures, names, memories, or free thought, is excessive and unnecessary. No one calls them by name, only by the color of their cloaks; when they die, they are replaced, and few notice the difference.

The Green Knight is the oldest of them, and while his memories are mostly gone, his basest instinct is screaming to back away from his king when the Highland delegation comes into view. Even from a distance, it is clear that King Brian is not among them. Besides the two White Wolves, there are three people, two of whom are female and the third of whom is decidedly shorter than the king.

"My uncle regrets his inability to come in person," the younger of the two women begins. "He has sent me to deal with any measures that require royal blood. I am Princess Adelaide, the third in line for succession."

"I am Sir Nicholas, advisor to the Princess," the unarmored man says, stepping into a deep bow. "Handmaiden Jane is here to aid Princess Adelaide in more… feminine matters. Sir Adam and Sir James are here as protection. We are at your service."

The grin on King Cassius's face at that sends chills up the Green Knight's spine. There's something about Highland behind one of the mental barriers, something important, but he can't quite reach it. Considering how King Cassius and the delegation have acted towards each other in the past few minutes, it's probably nothing good.  _ Someday, _ he thinks,  _ this man will be dead, Remus will be king, and this world will be a happier place. _ As soon as it crosses his mind, the Green Knight shoves that thought back to wherever it came from; that day is still far off, and the next few weeks will be enough of a trial without doubts of loyalty.

***

The Green Knight is no stranger to royal children; he has, in fact, been guarding Prince Remus on and off since he was born. Despite his inability to remember anything before about ten years ago (and that only in the vaguest of details), he understands what it must be like to be in a world where you're expected to act like an adult and not treated with the same respect and tolerates their fits of selfishness and pettiness accordingly. He even likes them, sometimes, these tiny people with big eyes and soft hearts and crowns too heavy for their heads.

None of this changes the fact that Princess Adelaide is (or, at least, appears to be) a brat. A sixteen-year-old, hopeless, self-centered, unashamed brat in a fancy dress who was sent on a diplomatic mission anyways. Sir Nicholas rolls his eyes and shoots the Lowland delegation exasperated looks; Jane smiles and sighs and is generally about three steps from patting her head and offering her a cookie. Clearly, this is (or, at least, implied to be) normal behavior for the third in line to Highland's throne.

Still, there are moments where the Green Knight wonders if this is really how the girl acts or if the delegation was picked for their acting skills. There are times when Sir Watty makes a particularly crude comment or Cicero casually drops the word "barbarian" into conversation that the princess' eyes grow cold and hard and her hands clench. However ditzy and bratty she may be, she is obstinate enough to not give the old councilmen any ground, and the itch in his mind tells the Green Knight that this feat is far from easy. When she is escorted by the White Wolf guard, the one on her right is always half a step behind and a foot further out than the one on her right, giving them both room to swing weapons without hitting each other. Once you start looking for it, the signs are hard to miss, but the Green Knight says nothing, and no one else looks.

They first meet face-to-face about a week after the Highlanders' arrival. He is going to relieve the Black Knight (the youngest of them, still more or less in one piece, with a gaze that feels slightly off and a thick scar crossing his face) from his shift guarding Prince Remus; she has just been kicked out of the Treaty Council after expelling a week's worth of pent-up rage. His one mistake is asking her what's wrong.

"What's wrong? WHAT'S WRONG? You of all people should know what's wrong!" she screams, and the Green Knight has never seen someone so burdened with loss look so childish.

"I don't," the Green Knight replies. He should know this girl, he knows he should know her, but he doesn't, and something about that makes him far more afraid than any enemy ever does.

"What do you mean you don't? You were… you don't  _ remember?" _ The inflection is less a question and more the beginning of a tirade, and he can't help but notice her eyes darting around, trying to figure out whether or not these walls have ears. As she decides (correctly) that they do, her lips purse into a flat line. "Excuse me, sir, but I must be going. Sir Nicholas will kill me if I don't return to my chambers." With that, she rushes off, and the Green Knight is left wondering once again about the hole in his memory.

Shoving all the questions that conversation created to the back of his mind, he continues searching for the Black Knight. The weather's nice; they're probably enjoying the gardens. It's none of his business how Princess Adelaide acts or why. It's none of his business what happened with Highland or why he, especially, should know it. His business is listening to Prince Remus babble and keeping the five-year-old out of trouble until the White Knight takes over the task with some distaste; nothing else should be on his mind. 

Somehow, he gets that feeling that  _ everything _ will be on his mind until the Highlanders leave, and he's unsure if that's a bad thing.

***

Prince Remus has always enjoyed the gardens and the peace they bring, and the Black Knight is not going to be the one to deny him. They've been outside practically since dawn, Remus racing around the intricate beds while the Black Knight watches. Fall is arriving, the trees just starting to tinge with color, and the Black Knight is glad that the duty most of his brethren loathe lets him stand outside in weather like this.

The White Wolf is a complete surprise that makes him wary. He's unsure why, but something in the back of his head is screaming  _ run, run now, this won't end well. _ Still, Remus hasn't gotten bored yet, so he is content to simply watch the other man admire the plants. The White Wolf is so close to him now that he can see how the armor moves with him instead of limiting some of his mobility and that the teeth on his wolf mask are stained red. Just as he is starting to get over his fear that an assassination is about to take place, Remus decides to run up to the stranger in armor. 

"Why's your armor so different?" Remus asks, and the Black Knight knows this conversation can't end well. To be fair to Remus, White Wolf armor is about as far from the plate armor favored by the Color Guard as armor can get; instead of thick sheets of metal that are awkward no matter how good the smith was, it's composed of something that the Black Knight would mistake for fabric if it wasn't so thick and vaguely metallic. To be somewhat less charitable, the boy is probably more fixated on the helm, which looks more like a mask than a proper helmet and is in the shape of a snarling wolf, complete with red enamel on the teeth; it's a reminder of Highland's vicious wildlife, a warning that sails right over the heads of small children, and something Remus would find impossibly cool all wrapped into one. "I've never seen that design before. It looks so cool!"

"I'm not from around here," the White Wolf offers as explanation.

"Where are you from, then?" The White Wolf stands up, and the Black Knight finds his hand on his sword without ever thinking. Instead of drawing his blade, though, he simply points to where you can see mountains rising in the distance.

"Do you see those mountains?"

"Yeah!"

"They're part of a country called Highland. I'm from there."

"Really? It must be really pretty there!"

"It is." Turning to the Black Knight, the White Wolf nods. "I am Sir James. I don't believe we've met yet."

"I'm the Black Knight." It's his name as well as his title, and he can feel the uneasiness building in the other man's frame.

"Don't you have a name?"

"No." Before Sir James can add a comment on that, the Green Knight steps out into the gardens.

"Why are you here?" the Green Knight asks, and Sir James shrugs.

"I was curious what kind of plants grew this far down. Adam is covering the Council, so I have a few hour of peace left before the princess does something too stupid," James replies.

"You may wish to rethink that last assumption. I ran into Princess Adelaide coming here." Sir James groans.

"I should be leaving, then. Lord knows that girl can get into trouble without any help." It takes mere moments for him to disappear into the castle, presumably heading for the delegation quarters.

"You look as if you've seen a ghost," the Black Knight comments casually as Remus goes off to play on his own again.

"The Princess Adelaide is… forceful," the Green Knight says. "Much like an earthquake. I will be very glad when this treaty is signed."

"So will I."

***

When the itch at the back of his mind finally breaks open, he's in his quarters. That's definitely a blessing; the realization is enough to send him reeling. He's been able to see flashes of violence and a little girl in a fancy dress for a few days now and is examining them for the little details that will finally dissolve the block when it all floods open at once and there's blood on his hands and a man is screaming at his wife to run and the Black Knight, the old one, not the kid in the cloak now, has a small blond child with him as he rides out of the city with an arrow in his side and the man is sobbing as his wife is stabbed over and over and the blood is everywhere and the mages are screaming as the Red Knight locks the doors of their sanctum and the White Knight lights the fire and the blood is everywhere-

It all makes sense now: the wariness, Addison's cryptic comment, why King Cassius looked so happy when she announced herself. She's that man's  _ daughter _ , which means that the man was their old  _ king _ and the Green Knight put a sword through his back to end the misery and she had literally watched her parents die and was taken back home by a dying knight from the country that killed him. No wonder he can barely remember the old Black Knight; if he really did ride off with Adelaide, that meant he had betrayed direct orders from the king. A frantic calculation of years tells him that she couldn't have been more than seven when her parents had died. Dear Lord, what had he done…

He has to warn them. He has no doubts that King Cassius is planning to try that scheme again, except with maybe less mage-burning this time. He hasn't started yet, though, which means there's still time for the delegation to leave. The Green Knight thinks that the negotiations are almost over, though, meaning that his time frame is a few days at most. He starts running.

He finds Princess Adelaide and Jane with knives in their hands and bodies at their feet. One of the White Wolves is with them and raises his blade when the Green Knight comes into view. "You need to run," he gasps as he comes to a halt. "Cassius declared the mages heretics to kill your parents, and he never lets anyone go free unless it benefits him. If you don't leave, you'll die."

"No shit, dumbass," Adelaide snaps.

"That does explain the lack of sanctums," the White Wolf says softly in a distinctly female voice. The Green Knight looks up. "He's right; we need to get moving."

"Me as peasant, Jane as my husband, and you as hostage, right?" Adelaide asks. The White Wolf nods. "Fine. Green Knight, we're going to either need your help or your death to pull this off. It's your choice which."

"What do you want me to do?" Adelaide smiles.

"One, look away for a few minutes. Two, take Eve with you when you leave and say she's me." The Green Knight nods and closes his eyes. When he opens them again, Jane is a very convincing peasant  _ man _ while there appear to be two Adelaides in front of him, one dressed as a peasant and the other as a princess. Without a word, the peasants disappear and the princess steps forwards.

"We should start moving or someone will suspect something." The voice is ever so slightly off, but it's a detail so tiny and so mutable that no one will notice. The Green Knight nods and they start walking towards the throne room.

***

The Black Knight has no clue what is happening when the Red Knight comes charging at Sir James, who he is sharing the garden with again, but he thinks he's supposed to retaliate when a foreign knight guts one of his comrades. Then again, it's the Red Knight, always bloodthirsty and always ready to cause the Black Knight more trouble than necessary; he's not sure him being gutted really counts. "What is going on?" he asks, and Sir James sighs.

"I need to be going, now," he says, and makes to disappear.

"Why?"

"Because I like my throat uncut and your king is about to try to kill any Highlander within easy reach."

"Can I come with you?" Remus asks. The Black Knight and Sir James share a look. 

"We could pull off being a family. It's either that or knock you out."

"I'd prefer to be conscious. What about the others?"

"Nick can take care of himself. Adelaide is probably already out. Ready?" The Black Knight nods. By the time guards arrive, they are long gone.

***

As they walk along Highland's narrow trails, the Black Knight realizes that any invasion would not have a chance at succeeding. The terrain here is far rockier than any in Lowland, and there are a thousand looping trails that lead back to a crossroads or abruptly end. What few towns he has seen have been sturdy and fortified, surrounded by hard walls and filled with hard people. As a more perplexing challenge, there seem to be far too many oversized wolves on and around their path for the environment to support. Even if you managed to survive long enough to siege the capital or wherever they were going, there are the White Wolves themselves.

"We just have about a mile left," James says. They have done three days' worth of travel from Lowland's capital in barely two, walking through most of the night and using many shortcuts through the wilderness. The Black Knight figures that the fact they appear to be a small farming family with James being the (surprisingly attractive) wife probably helped with getting through blockades just as much as avoiding them did.

"Your capital is this close to the border?" James laughed at the question.

"No. There's a Wolf Den ahead. We can rest there for the night and get horses. Oh, and probably get yelled at by Salamon, though that might wait until we get to the castle." Wolves flow out of the woods as they approach the high walls of a keep.

"Who goes here?" The largest, a pure white female with gray eyes (since when did wolves have gray eyes?) asked. James grinned.

"James of the Key, Wolf Ainsley, with the Black Knight and Crown Prince Remus of Lowland. We seek shelter for the night." The wolf ducks her head and a gap forms in the pack.

"Go, James of the Key and guests. Your sister and the others are waiting for you." As soon as they walked through the gate, a woman in light armor who looks eerily like James runs up to them, followed by a harried-looking man.

"You kidnapped the crown prince? Seriously, James?" The man says in a voice that carries an accent of some far-off land that the Black Knight has never heard of.

"And a member of the Color Guard," James adds. "Can we rest for the night? I know King Brian will be less than pleased at recent events, but I could really use the sleep."

"We were planning to head out at dawn tomorrow," the man replies. "What are you gaping at, sir?"

"Talking wolves," the Black Knight says blankly. "Wolves are not supposed to talk."

"Did you think the title was  _ symbolic?" _ The woman asks, and he has no answer. "Come on, James. We've got plans to make."

"Plans can wait for a minute, Jane," James says. "Is Lucy stationed here?"

"The mind mage? She's in the west wing. Why?" Salamon asks. 

"Our guest has some memory issues." Salamon's face tightens. "Total amnesia is not healthy. I figure that if anyone can fix it, that person is Lucy."

"Go. We'll talk later." With that, James starts dragging the Black Knight towards the west wing.

***

Three weeks later, life in Lowland has settled into a new pattern. King Cassius is planning a war that could kill him all. Certain circles of citizens who were not quite wiped out in the purges start murmuring their discontent a bit louder. The Color Guard stands silently behind the king; they are not supposed to know why the throne room's floor is a tiny bit scorched or why they are about to be fighting Highland or that King Cassius had a son.

The Green Knight knows. He knows that King Cassius is not and has never been sane and just what that insanity is leading and has led to. He knows about the wars they barely averted and that they have lost two Black Knights in a row to thinking that children had no place in it. He knows that Nick, the supposed advisor to the king, sent up a wall of flame that nearly burned the ceiling as he tried and failed to escape with "Adelaide." He doesn't exactly know where Remus, wonderful, sane Remus who is eight and still innocent, is, but he knows that he is safe in Highland and that is enough. He knows that, someday, the White Wolves will come back for their brethren and, if King Cassius is stabbed through the back during that invasion, no one will blame him.

The Heretic Guardsmen are a thing for a reason, after all, even if most of them are demonized when history gets written. Looking back, he realizes that he's been planning this for a long time and Highland has simply given him his motivation and alibi; he's not sure he cares about that. His mind is his own, his sword has never been steadier in his hand, and his king will fall; at this point, it's only a matter of time.

_ Someday, _ he thinks,  _ Cassius will be dead, Remus will be king, and this world will be a happier place. _ Even as he stands at the king's side, he refuses to place his thoughts or his plan aside; he has his past now, and it is time to make himself and the rest of this world a future worth dying for.

***

Highland is surprisingly peaceful, even when preparing for war. The Wolf Den in the capital is more a combination of school and base, so Remus isn't alone and they can plan in peace. It takes them a month of pulling resources and planning to settle on one plan. For all the effort it took to build, it's pretty simple: smuggle as many disguised White Wolves into the capital as possible and wait for hell to break loose.  In the chaos, they can free Nick and Eve and (possibly) kill the king. Considering how no one in Lowland seems able to connect battle skills and subtlety, it is the plan most likely to succeed with a minimum of casualties.

The Black Knight is fairly sure that, when war with Highland breaks, he's supposed to be on  _ Lowland's _ side, but… he likes being able to remember. He likes being a person instead of a weapon. He likes James and Jane and even this vicious version of Adelaide, and he knows that the only reason he has any of those things is because of the White Wolves. Given that, he is more than happy to fulfill his duty of protecting Prince Remus as far from Lowland as possible.

In the Hall of the Dead, where mementos of fallen wolves are kept and their names are carved into the stone, there's a helmet without a name. It's pitch black and in the Lowland style. The Black Knight thinks that it belonged to one of his predecessors, but he has no clue which one had worn this particular helm or why Adelaide, vicious and bitter as she is, seems to be three steps from bursting into tears when she looks at it. All he knows about it is that a Color Guard item would not be here if its owner hadn't done something drastic that got him killed. He takes it as a sign that he is not alone in deciding that his duty to his morals outweighed his duty to his country and tries not to think about how its owner died.

The morning they leave for the invasion, he takes off his armor piece by piece and puts it all in a box. Hopefully, he will come back and wear it again; if he doesn't, then it might aid the next batch of fools attacking Lowland. He says goodbye to Remus, who looks happier here than he ever did back in the capital, and leave a coin in the black helmet. It's a tradition that not even the amnesia from being in the Color Guard could shake from him; you always leave a coin with the dead so that they can pass into the afterlife safety and, if no one does it for you, help you along one day.

When they ride out as a motley group of unassuming civilians, he can't help but feel he is riding away from his home as they approach the places where he lived most of his life.

***

The execution of "Princess Adelaide" and Nick is a grand affair. People from all over Lowland pour into the capital to see the pair burn. The girl pretending to be Adelaide raises her chin as she is tied to the pyre; she is not afraid to die for her country, even if that means being burned alive. Nick, still trying to keep their masks firmly on, pleads for mercy on her and is widely ignores. The Green Knight carefully ignores the weapons and armor that are concealed by members of the crowd and pretends not to see his coworker in the simple-looking farmhand with a scar across his face.

What happens next is something the Green Knight is not quite sure of. Two of the faceless squires manning the stakes cut "Adelaide" and Nick loose; they are quickly shuffled off of the stage and into different attire. Someone, not him, kills the king. White Wolves rush out of the crowd, holding the king's advisors at swordpoint. They are walked back into the castle, where a man who looks so much like a colder version of the man in his memories that it could only be the Highlander king is sitting on the throne, giving them a cruel, tight smile. The pyres are lit, and the White Knight dies screaming like so many of his victims.

Somewhere in the chaos, Prince (now King) Remus returns. A new peace deal, this one not weighted towards Lowland, is struck. He and the Black Knight (his replacement delegated to be the new White Knight) are back to guarding the child only they really know. What both of them were planning to do if the White Wolves hadn't done it first is left undiscussed; they have no time for what might have happened, only what is happening and what will happen if they do not watch Remus' back like the Color Guard members they are.

Cassius is dead. Remus is king. The world is not a happier place yet, but they both think it will (or, at least, can) be.


End file.
